China to simplify customs inspections on iron ore imports

BEIJING (Reuters) - China will streamline the imports of iron ore and skip sampling inspection of product quality to improve trade facilitation, the General Administration of Customs said on Wednesday.

Importers or agents that require a quality certificate, or known as China Inspection and Quarantine (CIQ) certificate, need to submit application to customs, which will issue the it after certain inspections.

All iron ore delivered to China still need to go through field inspection and quarantine, including radioactivity detection, quarantine treatment of foreign inclusions and suspected or adulterated solid wastes, the customs said in a statement.

Three iron ore traders in China said most shipments still require a CIQ certificate to settle the deal. But for a few transactions of mainstream ores from big miners, the new move is expected to save them some time.